MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAIL SCHOOL, MEWDVILLE, PA.
The library wits founded in 1845, at the same time with the school, by
donations from the Church of All Souls and the Church of the Messiah,
New York, and from individuals living chiefly in New York and Boston.
The only fund for the increase of the library, the interest of which is
$72, was given by A. Worthington, of Cincinnati.
The library contains 12,308 volumes. The annual accessions average
about 200 volumes. A card catalogue of authors and subjects is being
prepared.
Between 1845 and 1850 Joshua Brookes, of New York, placed in the
hands of the trustees $20,000, since increased by investment to $22,000,
the annual income of which is expended for theological works and their
distribution among western clergymen who make application for them.
About 2,000 volumes are thus distributed annually among some 210.
clergymen. In this way 35,000 volumes of the best theological literature
have been given to western settled clergymen, irrespecive of denomi-
nation.

There are few of our. dtizens who have not some .
knowledge ef a poor but worthy and industrious
.mari./hamM CaaisTtAK; Srr.vEsTfia, who fat a
nura*bel
,
of years
4
has supported himself and family
bya book stand in Chatham street, formerly near
the.corner of Pearl street, and latterly, as at present,
at the corner of Roosevelt street. He has an incurabie'disease of'the
r
eyes, by Which he is-nearly /
blind, and he has nevertheless earned an honest h- II
-ving:at the jaboyff business for several years, and al- //
though ,so nearly blind that be is unable to recognise '
any face, 6f read aletter,. yet hchas acquired a surprising tact in conducting his establishment, by
which he knows where to find any particular volume
• uppn his well-filled shelves, and protects himself
; from'theft j though his stand is often'surrounded
with people examining his books. But in addition
to the eolc: of books, bur friend is celebrated somewhat as a doctor, espedally in the cure of those diseases for which JEfarlcem Oil is successful—for we
believe he uses no other, medicine. The design of
theprecent-artide, therefore, w to say that Christian Sylvester has made arrangements with the original inventors and proprietors of this article in
Holland, by which he has rectived a large impertation of the genuine Hartem oil, end, will be able to
keep a constant supply, at his residence, No* 121
East Broadway, *r at the book stand corner of Chatham and Roosevelt street, New York. The original letters frem the. proprietors in Holland, which
Mr. Sylvester has in his possession, and which he
is about to publisb, will satisfy the most sceptical » >
that idsosxhe genuine articWandthat much that is
sold in thi* city and elsewhere is spurious and worthless, in their estimation. Those, therefore, who
purchase RarUem oil of Mr. S; niay be sure that it
is pure as imported, and they will at the same time
help through the world an unfortunate and worthy
man.—Comtriunicated. '

This is my assumption, The label was was probably pasted in many books sold at the Book Stand and fortunately no one ever bothered to remove this one.until I found it.

Here is another American book label from 1836

The inked inscription above the book label is quite faded .
I believe this is what it says:
To Miss Mary Compston
This little tribute of respect
My Friend I give to thee
Treat not its motto with neglect
It is Remember Me
Dec. 1836 BFH

I had planned to write about American bookplates with a Chinese connection this week but I got more interested in exploring these labels.See you next Sunday

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Twenty five years ago I purchased most of the early American bookplate collection formed by Charles Stewart Davidson in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.His bookplates were mounted on 6 by 9 grey card stock with notations and auction records..

The Chippendale plate for Alexander Fothringham was among them and the auction blurb stated
"#66 Fothringham (Alexr.) Physician in Savannah Armorial Chippendale Very fine and excessively rare"
Unfortunately, I have never been able to determine which auction this came from.
In any event, I recently purchased a duplicate copy of the plate and I wanted to learn more about it.
Fellow collector John Titford did extensive research on my behalf and this is a portion of what he discovered.

”The good news is that I think we can identify Alexander fairly precisely - as
Alexander Fotheringham, Doctor of Physic, he died in 1774 and had his will
proved in South Carolina. Details attached.

Fotheringham
is a Scottish surname, the family having moved there from FOTHERINGAY in
Northamptonshire, England, and changed their name quite early on. Because it's a
rare name, any reference can be useful, so you'll see that I've trawled through
several sources (mostly printed sources) to get an overall picture. South
Carolina had very strong links with Barbados, and Fotheringhams do feature in
books I have of Barbados baptisms and marriages. I'll hold on to these for any
possible future use.

My guess would be that Alexander springs from a
branch of the Fotheringhams as featured in Burke's Landed Gentry. Further
my guess is that his father or grandfather might have travelled to, or even been
transported to, South Carolina, following the unsuccessful Jacobite Rebellion of
1715. Jacobites and probably Roman Catholics, in short."

Thank you John.
See you next week when I plan to write about Chinese American bookplates.

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Sometimes it is difficult to determine if you have a bookplate used by a well known person or someone who shares a name with a celebrity..A recently acquired bookplate from the library of Emily Post is a good example of what I mean.The bookplate was in a tattered copy of Coins de Paris by Georges Cain( published around
1907).When I questioned the dealer who offered it to me he explained that Emily Post the American guru on all things relating to etiquette visited Paris in the early 20th century so he concluded that the book was used by the real Emily Post (wishful thinking ) I happened to like the bookplate so I decided it was worth keeping regardless of which Emily Post was the original owner.

Emily Post

Some of Emily Post's descendants are involved with The Emily Post Institute so I contacted that organization .They responded quickly but their answer was inconclusive, I am still uncertain about what I purchased. Here is a link with more information about Emily Post.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Post

On Friday I got a bookplate for Roland Keith Young. Research on this one was effortless.The English actor Roland Young was an avid collector of ceramic Penguins

The Virginia bookplate was also purchased on Friday. I assumed it was from the library on a yacht.
As it turns out the Virginia did start out as a yacht, owned by W.K. Vanderbilt . By 1909 she became a house boat.It is the only houseboat library bookplate I have ever had.

1..auction slip tipped in at front, two
pictorial bookplates, one with the motto "felix est
qui me habet" and the other with
the name "Harold Marshall, Harlesden.

2Since there was an HMH in the upper
right corner and no other name I incorrectly speculated that this might be a bookplate
used by Harold Marshall Harlesden. After several emails with fellow collectors Richard Schimmelpfeng and Anthony Pincott I decided that my speculation was also wishful thinking. Here is what Anthony wrote :

“Happy is he who has
me” could be one translation, but the other is “It is Felix who owns me”, and I
suspect the owner enjoyed the double interpretation.

The initials HMH are
surely those of the artist. It would surely be strange to mix the address into
an owner’s initials.

The Brooklyn Historical Society Blog has a nicely presented posting about bookplates.Here is a link:

Sunday, July 01, 2012

In parts one and two I used bookplates of polar explorers from my own collection . If you have additional bookplates of polar explorers please send scans to Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com and they will be added to this posting.Here is a list of polar explorers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_polar_explorers

" Marie Peary Stafford and Louise Arner Boyd were both women of means who were drawn to the Arctic somewhat by chance. Stafford, the daughter of explorer Robert E. Peary, was born and spent the first months of her life in Greenland. The press nicknamed her the "Snow Baby," and her mother, Josephine Peary, published a book with the same name. As the daughter of the man credited with being the first person to reach the North Pole, Stafford grew up intimately connected to the region her father had explored. She returned to the Arctic as an adult for the sole purpose of building a monument to her father's memory". You can read more about her and other women of the arctic at this site:http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/summer/polar-women.html

Polar Ephemera
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there was a polar frenzy.
Many advertisers used polar explorations to promote products.
.Here are a few examples: